The outrage threshold on the Left
posted at 10:55 am on December 26, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Jim Morin of the Miami Herald has the best editorial cartoon on the Barack Obama – Rick Warren flap I’ve yet seen, and it points out not just hypocrisy but also the interesting threshold for outrage on the Left.
Let’s get this straight. The Left shrugged at Obama’s twenty years of alliance with a minister who spouted an infamous “God Damn America”. They sniffed when Jeremiah Wright called 9/11 “America’s chickens coming home to roost”. They may have even nodded their heads in agreement when the pastor to whom Obama gave over $20,000 in 2006 accused the US government of creating the HIV virus and AIDS as a genocidal tool against people of color.
However, Rick Warren offers public support for a California proposition that keeps marriage defined as his faith prescribes, and suddenly Obama has betrayed their trust. Really? They see a one-time association over a 60-second invocation as a betrayal of their values, when Obama’s twenty years with, and significant material support for, a raving anti-American demagogue like Wright didn’t disturb them in the least?
At least we know where their values lie.
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Brilliant
JeffreyLloyd on December 26, 2008 at 10:59 AM
I second that.
vinman on December 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Great cartoon!!!!!
dalec on December 26, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Hear! Hear!
Skywise on December 26, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Being a leftist requires layers and layers of self-deception.
Black is white. Up is down. Right is wrong. Is isn’t is.
jeff_from_mpls on December 26, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Just one of many examples of the hypocrisy of the left.
UltimateBob on December 26, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Heh. Heck of a good point. Unfortunately, using logic on a liberal is like trying to pound a nail with a wet noodle. They’re impervious to thought. It’s all about how we feel about things. Cognitive dissonance is meaningless without cognition.
trubble on December 26, 2008 at 11:05 AM
’nuff said.
Religious_Zealot on December 26, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Hard to know how they can explain this.
Oh no it isn’t – if in doubt scream ‘racism’. I have no idea how any of this involves race but I am sure a Daily Kos ‘diarist’ could explain it.
Ares on December 26, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Nitpicking, but that guy doesn’t look like a Democrat.
JiangxiDad on December 26, 2008 at 11:09 AM
The cartoon is genius. However, since it makes sense, it will mean nothing to a liberal.
Grafted on December 26, 2008 at 11:10 AM
More liberal logic, simple as that.
Dark-Star on December 26, 2008 at 11:12 AM
All pastors are equal…
…but some are more (and some are less) than others.
Religious_Zealot on December 26, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Big difference.
Black people are immune from criticism because once long ago there were black slaves.They were forced in the past to sit at the back of the bus and because of the guilt and shame that all white people should feel they have their own set of rules that says if you are white you cannot judge me.Also we have to remember that Barack Obama is in no way tied to anything negative in his past.It does not matter how closely he was associated with anyone.Their transgressions must never be linked to Obama.
Besides…he gave that wonderful Lincolnesque like speech that healed us all and cleansed our souls.
Rick warren however is obviously a hate filled bigot.His being white says it all. What more proof do you need….?Don’t let the fact that the majority of African Americans in California voted to support Prop 8 cloud your judgement.When they do it do not mention it.When others do it they should be run out of town as if they were Mormons.
We must also overlook all the hate filled rhetoric of the gay community are they are fighting for their “rights” so anything they do in that pursuit must be exonerated and understood.
NeoKong on December 26, 2008 at 11:14 AM
Guess Warren is the better of the other one. But, I don’t like Warren. Seems like a cult leader. My brother was friends with a person that goes to Warren’s church. Said that he was a strange person. What ever floats ones boat. There are a lot of gays that are mad at BO here in Ca. Can’t lose for winning or can’t win for losing.
sheebe on December 26, 2008 at 11:14 AM
The left felt secure during the campaign that any moves Obama made towards the middle were lies, and were just being done to bamboozle the rubes in the swing states and flyover country, and was spouting less radical position just to use those voters to win the presidency. The fact he did the Warren selection for the inaugural after all the votes have been counted — let alone some of the foreign policy appointments — has many of them now thinking they were the ones who were used, and they’re not happy about it.
The tantrums are an effort to remind Barack who got him this far, but people like Rahm Emanuel and others on the staff remember what happened when Bill and Hillary went too far left in 1993-94. They no doubt still want to move the country left, but apparently are smart enough to know they have to do it incrementally; the far left in the Democratic Party is too childish to wait for their reward and want it all now (and that immediate gratification syndrome by the left and the backlash it would cause is one of the best hopes for conservatives and Republicans going into the 2010 election cycle)
jon1979 on December 26, 2008 at 11:14 AM
To get the full effect of Ed’s wonderfully succint summary, finish up by reading the Joel Klein (”I actually don’t love America”) column linked at the Hot Air front page this morning. It all comes together.
Lots of books have been written in the last 5 or ten years spelling out what’s wrong with liberal/leftwing America. All you really need to do is look at that cartoon, read Ed’s post, then read Klein’s op ed.
fivefeetoffury on December 26, 2008 at 11:17 AM
jon1979 on December 26, 2008 at 11:14 AM
Excellent post +1
Shipley to tell us that one Pastoral situation has nothing to do with the other in 5…4…3.
kingsjester on December 26, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Liberal hypocrites?
NO WAY!!
jukin on December 26, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Isn’t “liberal hypocrites” a tad redundant?
Religious_Zealot on December 26, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Wait. The left has values?
Guardian on December 26, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Leftists are by definition morally and intellectually bankrupt.
All they have is their undying faith in the church of post-modern socialism and reality will never make a dent into that.
NoDonkey on December 26, 2008 at 11:24 AM
Well played, sir!
moxie_neanderthal on December 26, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Brilliant! Utterly dripping with hypocrisy!!
notashamed on December 26, 2008 at 11:28 AM
If the Democrats had been smart, they would have convinced Bill Clinton to resign the Presidency for either “the good of the country” or “the good of the party” back in 1999. If they had done so, incumbent President Algore would have won election in his own right in 2000, and may have even won re-election in 2004.
But they needed immediate gratification then, namely seeing their guy beat the evil Rethuglicans. But it was the Rethuglicans who won the White House in 2000, vecause Algore was rejected by the voters of his own home state.
As for Leftist hypocrisy, one example speaks volumes. The Left demanded that the evil Bush turn over every shred of documentation regarding his Air National Guard career, and then happily ignored the fact that their own candidate, who was unlike Bush running on his own military record, refused to release all of his military records to the public.
That’s a double standard wide enough to pilot a Swift Boat through.
Del Dolemonte on December 26, 2008 at 11:30 AM
The key difference is that the outrage isn’t at Obama’s association with Warren — some weren’t happy that he went to Saddleback, but there was not the outrage on this level — but at the naming of Warren as the guy to say the prayer at the inauguration, which some people see as validating his views on homosexuality. Keep in mind, this came right after Prop 8.
I personally am not upset at Warren’s choice to give the prayer, but I can understand why some people are.
Tom_Shipley on December 26, 2008 at 11:32 AM
I’m sure you were being sarcastic, but it reminds me that whenever anyone mentions this line of reasoning, I must respond with: Think about the Jews, who suffered far more, and have never asked for anything in return, except to be left alone.
Vashta.Nerada on December 26, 2008 at 11:33 AM
A big “Amen!” to all who bemoan liberal hypocrisy, but when the vast majority of the media are supporting you, it doesn’t mean a thing. You can get away with the darnedest things. Inconsistencies, outright lies, whatever. Liberals are coated with Teflon.
ddrintn on December 26, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Nothing has quite captured Barry’s humorlessness like that cartoon.
Chuck Schick on December 26, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Values?
Obama’s “values” are strictly “of the moment”.
Whatever works right now is a value.
Everything else goes under the bus and down the memory hole.
heldmyw on December 26, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Lefties wear their views like coats, they simply head to the closet and don their fur-lined outrage of the day, then remove it when necessary to grab another.
Bishop on December 26, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Liberals have selective amnesia.
blatantblue on December 26, 2008 at 11:59 AM
To take a page from Ayn rand, now that we know that their ideology, their life as they know it, is to make A into not A, that this is their goal, what then does that say about their view of business, sex, politics, and the state of their bodies and souls?
Spc Steve on December 26, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Not a Rick Warren fan but once Obama takes office he shall be the least of your worries. The Nanny State will begin to emerge and will have it’s fingers tightly on your neck. Any attempt at self expression, freedom or individuality shall be swiftly squeezed out of you until you conform! Got guns…BWAAAAAA! You shall turn them in! Drive a gas hog…you shall pay! Taxes…get to love them because they shall be raised (for the children)! Love talk radio…it will be stifled! America is not going to be the America we knew…
sabbott on December 26, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Haven’t you heard….?
Jews are the new Nazis.They can be attacked and murdered anywhere in the world and no one will condemn the act.You can blow up their buses,shell their schools and murder their children in their beds and it will all be excused or ignored if an Arab or a Muslim commits the crime.
They are an occupation force as you know.
NeoKong on December 26, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Once again: As Ed and the cartoon point out, why are they upset at the nominal relationship between Warren and Obama but unconcerned about the much more extensive and personal
relationship between Obama and Wright for more than two decades?
He who says “A” – that Obama and Warren’s relationship tells us something about Obama – also need to say “B” – that Obama and Wright’s relationship tell us something about Obama.
SteveMG on December 26, 2008 at 12:10 PM
It’s just a pity he didn’t pick Wright to give the invocation. There’s a mean little part of me that would enjoy hanging around to see how calm and accepting you were of that choice.
;-)
Jazz Shaw on December 26, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Strawman.
hillbillyjim on December 26, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Don’t know about anyone else, but I couldn’t care less either way.
Not really. The selective outrage demonstrates what the values really are.
ddrintn on December 26, 2008 at 12:19 PM
George Orwell really got the liberal / socialist / marxist mindset and government right in his 1984 novel. He only missed on the year–the book should have been titled 2009.
***
John Bibb
rocketman on December 26, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Ask 100 Americans who Wright is and 85 will have no clue. Ask the same 100 who Warren is and 85 will know. This is is how the MSM will be acting for the next 4, 8, 12, 16 years with Barrack Obama as president.
I also predict that cartoonist will be unemployed in the not too distant future.
angryed on December 26, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Warren is only giving the invocation, someone else with totally different views will be giving the benediction.
It will be like, “Now here is the end of your rights and views and safety, and then here is the beginning of my reign of terror appeasement!”
Vntnrse on December 26, 2008 at 12:35 PM
This is one of the best political cartoons I’ve seen all year, and that’s saying a lot.
I’ve already forwarded this to many of my liberal “friends.”
Sir Corky on December 26, 2008 at 12:37 PM
More Democratic “nuance”.
Why don’t Obama’s supporters just start wearing Brown Shirts and get it over with?
GarandFan on December 26, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Great cartoon! I’ve got an anti-religion lefty relative who didn’t think Jeremiah Wright was a problem at all, but Rick Warren’s got her coughing up hairballs. Had the chance to get her alone yesterday to tell her what a hypocrite she is. I only have to see her once a year, so wanted to get my licks in. Ahhh, Christmas….
TeeDee on December 26, 2008 at 1:19 PM
Yeah….what don’t you get? Liberal moral outrage can be switched on and off at will, because we know that liberals really have no morals whatsoever. They can be completely free of hypocrisy because they will admit to believing in nothing, so there’s no relationship between what they’ve done in the past, what they do now, and what they will do in the future. They have all the accountability of 5-year-old children.
Well, my New Year’s resolution is not to exaggerate, so let me correct that to “the accountability of 2-year-old children”.
mr.blacksheep on December 26, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Obama has figured out how to play the left. Rather than stand for nothing, he stands for everything. Pretty much the same thing. There is no position, no issue, where being on both sides isn’t a possibility. The Left doesn’t care about hypocrisy or inconsistency, so long as he ends up on their side of the issue.
This will be a continuing frustration for the Left, as Obama chooses the paths of least resistance. Some of the more frothy Lefties (like future Senator Franken, or Queen Barney Frank) will call him on this, but to no avail.
We should never forget that Obama is an amoral cretin (just remember his position on the Born Alive Amendment, if you need a refresher), but we should also continue to refer to him as “moderate” in spirit and occasionally “conservative”–simply to antagonize the Left. It’s like that scene in Ghostbusters, where Bill Murray plays a few piano notes, saying that ghosts really hate that. The Left really hates a whiff of moderation in their elected loons.
EMD on December 26, 2008 at 1:47 PM
The leftists + logic = FAIL
Mojave Mark on December 26, 2008 at 1:57 PM
I for one wouldn’t have been critical at all if Obama had chosen Jeremiah Wright to give the invocation. I would have been sincerely impressed that Obama and Rev. Wright decided to affirm their relationship publicly. I would have taken it as a welcome and refreshing display of honesty from Obama.
So I’m totally not getting the idea that conservatives would be all over Obama if he had picked Wright. On the contrary, it would be the most natural thing in the world for Obama to have done so.
jeff_from_mpls on December 26, 2008 at 1:58 PM
You have confounded Tommy with logic.
He won’t be back.
DeweyWins on December 26, 2008 at 2:06 PM
Values?
They have no values.
shaken on December 26, 2008 at 2:26 PM
Was there ever any doubt?
canditaylor68 on December 26, 2008 at 2:28 PM
I didn’t think it was an original thought to me, but I’ve been pointing out liberal up=downism for years. First time I’ve run across Ayn’s expression of it.
Trying to make A into not-A. That’s good.
misterpeasea on December 26, 2008 at 2:31 PM
I think the difference here is that the left agrees with Wright.
jharada on December 26, 2008 at 2:35 PM
Obama is against gay marriage, isn’t he?
LibTired on December 26, 2008 at 2:42 PM
They have a plan. I’m aware of nothing that better embodies and follows through with plans steeped in Ad Hoc structure more adeptly than their chosen One. The beauty of this strategy (for nothingness) is that it superficially increases the audience the politician panders to while fracturing the coalition that bought the votes to elect him to represent their leftist notions. The cartoon abundantly illustrates the fact.
ericdijon on December 26, 2008 at 2:55 PM
Pay no attention to that. The left will set him straight soon enough. Or the real Obama will show up and be say he for gay marriage all along.
tjexcite on December 26, 2008 at 3:20 PM
lol, TeeDee!
Alana on December 26, 2008 at 3:30 PM
I am more disappointed that Warren would associate and support a President that supports infanticide and won’t take a stand on when life begins.
Mallard T. Drake on December 26, 2008 at 3:40 PM
***
We may be on the verge of having a president’s minor daughter get pregnent, and then get an abortion while he (The One) is still sitting POTUS… Now those are morals we can….. Oh never mind.
***
Also, why did he pick 16? We all know
1413 is doable. (”I didn’t hear that! I don’t want to know the age!)***
Now where is that handbasket?
RalphyBoy on December 26, 2008 at 4:55 PM
Rightists are by definition morally and intellectually bankrupt.
All they have is their undying faith in the Church of Reagan and reality will never make a dent into that.
sethstorm on December 26, 2008 at 5:11 PM
When I first looked at it, I thought it was Barney Frank; then, I noticed the mustache..
Red State State of Mind on December 26, 2008 at 5:56 PM
The left proclaim the superior moral and intellectual high ground by electing a leader that spent 20 yrs. in a church that preached “God Dam# America”,”America deserved 9/11″,”the CIA created Aids”,and you must conform with the black separatist theology or face the genocide of your race.
Then kicked off his political career in the living room of a marxist terrorist that thinks Charles Manson is a tuned in dude and dedicates his books championing the overthrow of the US government to assassins like Sirhan Sirhan.
A governor in NJ who has threesomes with his gay lover and wife then hooks him up in the administration.
A governor who sells senate seats to the highest bidder.
A governor who transports prostitutes across state lines,launders money,and then locks people up for doing the same thing.
A senator who actually had sex with pages then got a standing ovation in the senate for it.
A senator who left a woman to drown while he went to sleep off his drunk.
A senator who made one he!! of a recruiter for the KKK.
A senator and Presidential candidate who had an affair while his wife is fighting for her life from cancer.
Congressman with bribe money in their freezer’s.
Congressman who cheat on their taxes while they head the Ways and Means committee.
Congressman who has multiple affairs and then tricks them out for political favors.
A President who cheats on his wife “because he can” so much that even the embarrassment of doing it in the White House in front of the world doesn’t stop him.
Takes millions of dollars from groups the righteous liberals call terrorist and war mongers when Republicans take money from them.
Congressman who told us as early as the democratic convention that “Fannie/Freddie were strong and not to over react”,and had a male prostitution ring running out of his house ….on…and …on…and …on.
Yea,that is some real intellectually and moral high ground you got there genius.
It appears you are getting your “by definition’s” from a Micheal Moore book.
You might want to clean up your back yard before you tell somebody what to do with theirs.
Baxter Greene on December 26, 2008 at 7:27 PM
It isn’t Reagan himself, it’s principle. But then I guess you can’t understand that.
ddrintn on December 26, 2008 at 7:31 PM
I thought sethstorm was being sarcastic when he wrote that. Weren’t you, sethstorm?
Red State State of Mind on December 26, 2008 at 7:56 PM
Boy you really backed that load of bologna up.
/sarc
I get a kick out intellectuals(SARC) like seth. WHat a friggin joke.
Jamson64 on December 26, 2008 at 8:04 PM
Rightists are by definition morally and intellectually bankrupt.
All they have is their undying faith in the Church of Reagan and reality will never make a dent into that.
sethstorm on December 26, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Well Thank you, what a way to Peace Hope and Love. Such Compassion, Such Grace, such Tripe.
Maybe the way to bring the country to any of your ideas is not to call Righties stupid and immoral. It is a stupid way to win friends and to converse intelligently.
Gracelynn on December 26, 2008 at 8:43 PM
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